Vitor Belfort: “I don’t ever want to cheat.”

Vitor Belfort’s handling of his TRT use hasn’t exactly been stellar. First he beat around the bush and ducked the question for as long as he could. It wasn’t until after his fight with Michael Bisping that the UFC tried to slip news under the wire that The Phenom was “on a medically approved testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) regimen under the supervision of a medical doctor from the State of Nevada.”

From there the media exploded about it, and so did Belfort. After his win over Luke Rockhold, Vitor snapped at MMA Junkie’s John Morgan for daring to ask about his testosterone use – he even suggested someone should beat Morgan up. He apologized afterwards, but it wasn’t a great moment and certainly not something you’d expect from someone with nothing to hide. So now he is changing tacts and appealing to our sympathies through that very same reporter:

“The TRT is my private life, but it’s become public, and it’s now a big, big thing. I believe that all the good things I’m doing, people kind of forget it and have a tendency to not pay attention or give credit for the way I’m winning fights, the way I’m working, the way I’m being an example for my Blackzilian teammates. I’m putting in the hard work, and I’m not done yet.”
…
“So basically what TRT is for me is to not be at a disadvantage,” Belfort said. “People talk like it’s a cheating process, but it’s the opposite. Low testosterone is something that can cause serious health problems and even death. You can have problems, big problems, if it’s untreated. So the treatment is for you to live longer and have a better life by having less health problems.
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“For the fight with Rockhold, I did seven blood tests,” Belfort said. “I did one every week. I have records of all of them. Some of the results are even lower than they should be, and the doctor said, ‘You should probably increase,’ and I said, ‘No, I don’t want to get to a level that’s bad for me.’

“I just want people to know that I have a conscience, and I wanted to have something, a record, that for the rest of my life people can know I was doing something right. I don’t ever want to cheat.”

Interesting words from someone who has been caught for steroids before and has spent the majority of his early career under the same kind of eye rolling ‘suspicion’ that he ‘may’ be using steroids as Alistair Overeem. You can’t show up to a footrace wearing rocket skates and then tell me they don’t give you an advantage. You are wearing rocket skates and they are clearly giving you an advantage.